SHUNYA, a labor of love and lunacy, dates from Feb 2000. It hosts photos by Namit Arora, and writing by him and Usha Alexander.

NAMIT ARORAgrew up in the Indian cow-belt city of Gwalior, famous for its fort and the first epigraphic evidence of zero. After IIT Kharagpur he studied computer engineering in Louisiana, followed by a great escape in 1991 to Silicon Valley, where he played a cog in the wheel of Internet technology at three failed startups and at Nokia, Cisco, and McAfee.This didn’t make him wise but enabled him to attend lectures of dubious practical value at Stanford and to live, work, or travel in scores of countries, including yearlong stints in London and Amsterdam. He quit this profession in 2013 and moved from California to Delhi NCR.

Namit’s essays have appeared in
venues like the Humanist, the Times Literary Supplement, the Caravan, Philosophy Now, the Kyoto Journal, thePhilosopher, HimalSouthasian and four college anthologies in the U.S. He writes a column on 3 Quarks Daily and has finished a novel that he hasn’t published yet. His review of Joothan won the 3 Quarks Daily 2011 Arts & Literature Prize. During a two-year break (2004-06), Namit traveled across India and created a photojournal. Over 15 museums, 30 academies, and 50 publishers have licensed his photos. His videography includes River of Faith, a documentary film about the Kumbh Mela.He also serves as visiting faculty at the Adianta School for Leadership and Innovation.

Namit's photos have been licensed by museums, academia, media & publishing, governments, individuals,
NGOs, etc. If you too wish to use one or more of his copyrighted photos, please email to
negotiate a sensible fee, file format, and resolution (images on this website are less than half the size and quality of the original). The license fee depends
on your means and ends, and is usually in the USD 30-300 range (volume discounts available) — progressive non-profits (e.g., Amnesty, ACLU, ICRC, MSF, UNICEF) can get their licenses for free. Please always inquire before copying (fair use exception). To make an online payment, click on the Buy Now button on the right.

"Shunya" means "zero" as well as a metaphysical "void". Zero and our decimal system arose in India some 1500 years ago, reaching the West via the Arabs and so came to be called Arabic Numerals. The city of Gwalior, in its Bhojadeva inscriptions, has the earliest known epigraphic evidence of zero in India. So for all practical purposes, Gwalior may be regarded as the birthplace of zero. It also happens to be the city where Namit was raised and he surely stands to gain a measure of pride from this association. :-)